Charitable giving highlights: Molina Healthcare has given $34,800 to the Washington region since 2010.

Tell me about your philanthropy.

The thought behind it is to give smaller grants but make it more grassroots. We really spend time getting to know the organization that the grants are going to, making sure the majority of money is going to serve the populations that we serve — the underserved, indigent and people that have limited resources. Also our employees get 16 hours every year to do community service.

What are some activities you do?

A year or so ago, we bought new patio furniture for the Baileys Crossroads Homeless Shelter because the furniture they had was old. We also bought a grill for them and did a big cook out. A lot of those patients are ones that come to our clinics.

Tell me about another grant.

One was with the Northern Virginia Specialty Access Organization. That’s a regional institution to help underserved and uninsured people get specialty care. That’s really big issue in our community. We have primary care sites but we have trouble getting patients to cardiologists or a neurologist. The benefit to the specialist is that everybody gets one patient before they get two.

How has the philanthropy evolved over the years?

We’re really becoming more of a partner and established more of a presence in the Northern Virginia area.

What’s the process to find a partner?

We’re really well suited to find the organizations that could most benefit from the grant because they’re right in the clinic. We don’t call around and see what they need because we see the patients. Everyone that we’ve partnered with we see and hear about their needs every day.

Where does the grant money come from?

Molina Healthcare sets aside a budget to do charitable giving for all the states we operate in.

What’s the structure for giving?

We come together at our staff meetings to talk about what grants we want to give each quarter. There’s a leadership team but we try to get the input from people that see the patients everyday like the medical assistants and pharmacists in the lab.

Are there areas in your philanthropy that you want to improve?

We did a project with one of the shelters and I think we were remiss in not doing it with all of the shelters. It was such a successful project that I think we could repeat some of the good things that we’ve done.

Do you track the way that giving has any results on the business side?

With the safety net clinics we have so many patients that are in need. We’re not looking to bring more patients in. Charitable giving isn’t going to increase the bottom line in that sense. We see it a more case-by-case basis where the patients come in and see their doctor that was cooking a burger for them last week. So that patient might be more comfortable coming back.

-Interview with Vanessa Small